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UK Disability History Month: 22nd November – 22nd December 2013

UK Disability History Month: 22nd November – 22nd December 2013. UK Disability History Month was set up to celebrate our lives and to explore the history of negative attitudes and their consequences. Despite the Olympics creating positive shifts in the media and public attitudes to disabled people, levels of hate crime continue to increase and disabled people are bearing the brunt of Government austerity measures. The long history of civil and human rights’ struggles by the Disabled People’s Movement has led to the majority of disabled people living independently in the community. Over the last 70 years, all long stay hospital and institutions, where disabled people were inhumanely ‘warehoused’, have rightly been closed. This is now in danger of being reversed. The UK’s international human rights obligations are increasingly not being met.

JFK: 1917 – 1963

“We are not here to curse the darkness, but to light the candle that can guide us through that darkness to a safe and sane future.”

The Winner of The Green Carnation Prize 2013 is….

The Winner of The Green Carnation Prize 2013 – Andrew Solomon is the latest author to win the Green Carnation Prize with ‘Far From The Tree’ a book about exceptional children which celebrates what it means to be human in all its diversity.

GTW NEWS and POETRY EVENT: Alex Dimitrov & Maureen Duffy 28/11/13

Gays The Word: NEWS and POETRY EVENT: Alex Dimitrov & Maureen Duffy 28/11/13. As staff at the shop begin to gear up for a busy Christmas period they’ve not only stocked-up on their wonderfully diverse range of books, film and cards but they’ve got something of a smile on their faces as Gay’s the Word will reach its milestone 35th anniversary in the early new year. So be sure to come along to Bloomsbury – perhaps to one of the fantastic events listed here.

Scotland prepares for historic parliamentary vote on equal marriage

Scotland prepares for historic parliamentary vote on equal marriage – The Scottish Parliament will hold a crucial debate and vote on Scotland’s equal marriage legislation today. The Stage One vote on the country’s same-sex marriage bill is in many respects the most important vote because it will reveal for the first time whether a majority of MSPs supporting introducing equal marriage, or whether they will reject the bill.

International Transgender Day of Remembrance

Today (20th November) is international Trans day of Remembrance, commemorating those killed by transphobia worldwide – 238 this year alone. Memorial services are planned worldwide, including one this evening in London (GMB event: Putting the T back in LGBT conference and vigil 20.11.13 contact Carl Banks gmbshout@hotmail.co.uk) Schools OUT UK’s Andrew Dobbin has written a piece looking at some Trans issues from an employment and educational viewpoint

'Sherlock' star comes out publically

Andrew Scott, who plays arch-nemesis Moriarty on the hit BBC series, has come out as “a gay person” in a low-key interview with The Independent. Oddly enough, the recent spate of antigay attitudes in Russia spurred on the low-key coming out in the interview. Though the interview covers his career and how Sherlock has changed it, he’s heavily promoting an upcoming BBC drama called Legacy which required him to do a Russian accent. To prepare, he studied videos of Russian President Vladimir Putin, but that stopped when Putin introduced antigay legislation. As Scott tells it, “being a gay person, I switched to Rudolf Nureyev videos instead.”

Reclaiming the dancehall from the homophobes

Reclaiming dancehall from the homophobes – A new generation of gay Londoners are getting down to hardcore Jamaican sounds. Dancehall’s old guard are losing ground to newer artists with no time for such prejudices, and a fresh generation of gay DJs and clubbers have started looking beyond the outdated narrative that dancehall = homophobic.

History Resource: The Radical Activist who Took on AIDS

History Resource: The Radical Activist who Took on AIDS (BBC World Service) Peter Staley was one of the ACT UP activists whose campaigns helped to turn AIDS from a death sentence into a manageable condition. Their story is told in the Oscar-nominated documentary How To Survive A Plague.